362 
THE WOODCOCK'S INTELLIGENCE. 
Fast. Meaning my head, lady ? 
Sav. Not altogether so, sir ; but, as it were fatal to their follies that think to 
grace themselves with taking tobacco, when they want better entertainment, you 
see your pipe bears the true form of a woodcock's head. — Every Man Out of his 
Humour, act iii., scene 3. 
Woodcocks would seem to have been more common in England 
then than they are now, when the dramatist's allusion would certainly 
fail to be appreciated by ordinary playgoers. From a passage in 
Shakespeare's Hamlet, we know they were caught in snares or 
"springes;" and Beaumont and Fletcher say, "What pretty gins thou 
hast to halter woodcocks." But these were the days before Joe Manton, 
to say nothing of Westley Richards, Henry, and their competitors. 
" Stupid as a woodcock." The proverbial phrase, like many other 
proverbial phrases, must have been founded on imperfect observation, 
for the woodcock is by no means deficient in intelligence. We must 
not judge him by his looks, which certainly do him an injustice. He 
is a prudent and even a crafty bird, with all his senses well developed. 
Every sportsman knows that he takes skilful advantage of the like- 
ness of his colouring to that of the soil or of the bark of trees ; and 
he displays a good deal of discrimination in the choice of a place of 
refuge. Even a well-trained eye will fail to notice him when he is 
lying, supine among dry leaves and twigs beside the gnarled root of a 
tree, or close to a fragment of bark. In this position he remains until 
the danger is past. When pursued, he allows the sportsman to draw 
within a few paces before he rises ; and he always contrives to place 
trees and bushes between himself and his enemy, manoeuvring in this 
way as cleverly as a Red Indian on the " war-path." Generally, before 
stooping to earth, he describes a prolonged undulating line ; and when 
he has reached the shelter of the leafy covert, plunges into it for some 
distance, often wheeling round so as to deceive the sportsman. He 
knows, apparently, that the latter wiU look for him where he thinks 
he saw him take the ground. 
It is at the sweet hour of gloaming that our bird issues forth in 
search of food, frequenting the paths which wind through the forest, 
the low damp meadows, the marshy places. If you could foUow him 
